Abdel-Ghaffar further assured that Egypt is scheduled to receive 3.9 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine by the end of December as part of the ministry’s drive to provide vaccines for citizens, the statement said.

During a meeting held on Saturday to review the progress of vaccination in the country, Minister Abdel-Ghaffar called for the establishment of scientific committees that can raise citizens’ awareness of the importance of vaccines, especially in governorates with the lowest rate of inoculation.

According to a previous statement by Abdel-Ghaffar, Egypt has administered 45.9 million vaccine doses so far, with 30 million citizens inoculated with an initial dose and 15.9 million fully vaccinated.

Furthermore, Egypt already has a stock of all the coronavirus vaccines available worldwide, including Sinovac, Sinopharm, AstraZeneca, Sputnik V, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, and Moderna.

The Egyptian government approved in November the administration of a third booster vaccine shot to the most vulnerable groups in the country — which are estimated at more than 4 million individuals — and has begun to implement the measure as of this month.

Moreover, the government has recently opened online registration for children aged 12 to 15 years old, which comes shortly after its decision to approve vaccination for teens aged 15 to 18. Both categories will be inoculated with the Pfizer vaccine.

The health ministry has operated walk-in vaccination centres at Cairo’s metro stations and large malls since early November to facilitate vaccination measures, particularly for those who find online registration difficult, and to ease the pressure on hospitals and medical centres.

The government’s plans to expand the vaccination drive reflect its target to inoculate 40 million citizens by the end of 2021.